The Atomic Cafe (1982)

Directed by

Pierce Rafferty, Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 28m

Rated

12

Rating

7.3 of 10 from 76 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary uses archival footage from Cold War era newsreels and training films to show how the U.S. government downplayed the dangers of nuclear warfare. It contrasts cheerful patriotic messages with the grim reality of atomic bombs, all without a narrator.

satiricalunsettlingjarringeducationalretrodisquietingpropagandisticdarkly ironic

What happens

The Atomic Cafe is a 1982 American documentary film directed by Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader and Pierce Rafferty. It is a compilation of clips from newsreels, military training films, and other footage produced in the United States early in the Cold War on the subject of nuclear warfare. Without any narration, the footage is edited and presented in a manner to demonstrate how misinformation and propaganda was used by the U.S. government and popular culture to ease fears about nuclear weapons among the American public. In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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